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! Coming Home to God
!! Chapter 6—Treasure Hunt: Finders and Seekers
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"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
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Matthew 13:44-46
Almost everyone likes stories of hidden treasure.
In the early 1800s Charles IV King of Spain, whose estate included a precious collection of antique clocks as well as the crown jewels of Spain, knew that Napoleon was about to invade his country.
In one room of the palace, he had the clocks walled in.
In another room, he had the crown jewels walled in.
A faithful servant kept samples of the draperies of both rooms to remember which of the 365 rooms of the palace contained the treasures.
Sure enough, Napoleon conquered Spain and installed his brother Joseph on the throne.
In 1814, when Charles's son Ferdinand VII recovered the throne, of course he wanted to find the crown jewels.
Every king needs his crown!
The faithful servant brought back the swatches of cloth from the draperies.
The only problem was that Joseph had changed all the draperies in the palace!
Ferdinand was faced with tearing the walls out of 365 rooms—or writing off his loss.
He wrote it off.
The whole story was considered a legend until a few decades ago, when plumbers found the collection of clocks.
It is probable that somewhere in the walls of the palace the crown jewels of Spain are just waiting to be discovered.
Someday someone will have the surprise of a lifetime, discovering hidden treasure.
(/Smithsonian, /October 1983, p. 140)
Jesus told two stories about coming back to God, comparing this return with finding hidden treasure.
Jesus often spoke of "the kingdom of God," simply meaning the rule of God in a person's life.
Other times, He referred to "the kingdom of heaven."
In Jesus' stories, the kingdom of heaven means ordering your life according to the ideals and character of Jesus.
"Thy kingdom come" equals "thy will be done."
Some are surprised to return to the kingdom of God; they find it as an unexpected treasure.
Others seek the highest good in life and find the kingdom of God.
Whether you are a surprised finder or a serious seeker, you must risk everything for the unique opportunity of knowing God's will in your life.
Each of Jesus' parables presents a past picture and tells a timeless truth.
Let's look at the picture half and the truth half of these stories to understand how we come back to the rule of God in our life.
!!! Finding Unexpected Treasure
This parable presents a past picture, telling of a man who suddenly finds what he is not seeking at all—treasure.
A poor day laborer plows the field of another man.
The sun sears his back; the simmering soil burns his feet.
Just to finish the day is his goal; all he wants is to take his denarius and go home.
Suddenly the plow strikes a strange object.
The animals jump, the plowman awakes from his half-sleep.
He claws at the ground with his hand to find an earthenware jug.
Tearing off the top, he sees bright yellow gold.
He steals a glance in all directions; no one has seen.
He throws some dirt over the jar, runs to the landlord and tells him that he must leave work immediately.
By law he was not required to tell the owner of his find, for it had been buried years before by ancient Amorites.
Transported by joy, in a state of delirious exultation, he knows that his whole life is about to change.
He immediately sells everything he has and buys the field—which would have been a good value for what he paid.
But he forgets the field; he has the treasure.
Hidden treasures today are rare.
In the ancient biblical lands, however, they were common.
Palestine, caught as a land bridge between Egypt and the great empires, was repeatedly invaded, ravaged, and captured.
Multitudes buried gold.
There were no banks.
The government, nobility, clergy, and Arab invaders all robbed the common people often and without warning.
Because of this, the people quickly buried treasure in the ground, in walls, in tree trunks, or wherever they could.
Earthquakes could cover up entire cities and bury gold with them.
All kinds of people quickly buried what they had in the face of invasion or political change.
They left, they died, they were captured, and no one knew where the treasure was hidden.
W. M. Thompson was a missionary in Syria and Palestine for thirty years.
He told of workmen digging up a garden in Sidon.
They found several copper pots of gold.
They did exactly like the man in the parable—concealed their find with care.
But then, wild with joy, they could not keep their mouths shut.
The governor of the city caught them, and recovered two of the pots, and it was found that they contained eight thousand pure gold coins of Alexander and his father Philip.
Thompson saw hundreds of persons all over the country spending their last penny looking for such treasure.
Until this century, finding buried treasure was the ancient working man's equivalent hope of winning the lottery today.
Such stories of plowmen finding treasures have historical basis.
The rabbis told of a man whose ox suddenly sank into the ground as he was plowing.
The ox had fallen into a treasure trove which became the property of the happy plowman.
Jesus' parable tells a timeless truth.
Many find the rule of God in their lives without seeking.
They stumble onto joy.
By accident, by sudden revelation, by a sunburst of unexpected light, Jesus Christ invades their life.
Their experience is recorded in Romans 10:20: " 'I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask forme.'"
The Bible is full of people who suddenly encountered the ultimate treasure of God's invasion of their lives.
It included the shepherds watching their flocks by night, who were suddenly surprised by a multitude of the heavenly angels singing to them.
You can rest assured they were not sitting around Bethlehem's pastures expecting a concert by a thousand angels!
But suddenly it happened.
All they wanted was to keep their toes from freezing off in the winter wind and to keep the wolf from snatching their sheep.
All they wanted was to find the meager grass in the rocky soil.
But suddenly angels sang to them.
They found an unexpected treasure.
A woman of Samaria found an unexpected treasure at Jacob's well at noon, when she went there alone.
Other women always went in the cool of the day, but she went at noon, in the heat, alone.
Ashamed.
The Jews rejected the Samaritans as half-breeds.
She was a Samaritan rejected by other Samaritans.
On a hot day she wanted some cold water for her hot tongue; but she went alone because her hot passions had ruined her life.
Then she met Jesus beside the well.
She came looking for water to drink; but she left with the water of life.
John adds the detail that she left her water pot at the well and ran to tell others.
Just like the plowmen who eagerly sold his cup, cloak, and whatever else because of the joy of the find, she left her water pot.
She found unexpected treasure.
The jailer in Philippi had just gone to sleep.
It had been a hard day at the jail.
After two preachers caused a riot, he had finally gotten them into stocks—and then they started singing in the middle of the night.
He had just gone to sleep when the whole earth shook.
In light of Roman law, he was ready to kill himself if his prisoners escaped.
Then Paul told him how to rescue more than his prisoners, how to save his very inner life.
The jailer got all shook up when the jail shook down, but he found hidden treasure.
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